166 ECONOMIC SELF- RESTRAINT An interpretation of Ischomachus’ use of sophrosyne in Xenophon’s Oeconomicus MA Thesis Classics and Ancient Civilizations Supervisor: Dr. T.A. van Berkel Second reader: Dr. A.M. Rademaker Word count: 16.494 Date of submission: 12-08-2019 Aniek Vink s1665235 [email protected] Contents Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 2 Chapter 1: a semantic study of sophrosyne ............................................................................................. 4 1.1. General uses ................................................................................................................................. 4 1.2. Plato’s philosophical uses ............................................................................................................ 8 1.3. Relation to enkrateia .................................................................................................................... 9 Chapter 2: Socrates’ sophrosyne ........................................................................................................... 11 2.1. Good sense to avoid harming others .......................................................................................... 11 2.1.1. Xenophon’s apologetic definition ....................................................................................... 11 2.1.2. Socrates’ philosophical definition ....................................................................................... 13 2.2. Good sense to avoid harming oneself ......................................................................................... 15 2.2.1. Xenophon’s apologetic definition ....................................................................................... 15 2.2.2. Socrates’ philosophical definition ....................................................................................... 16 2.3. Preliminary conclusion ............................................................................................................... 18 Chapter 3: Cyrus’ sophrosyne ............................................................................................................... 19 3.1. Good sense to avoid disorder ..................................................................................................... 19 3.1.1. Xenophon’s Greek-oriented definition ................................................................................ 19 3.1.2. Cyrus’ political definition .................................................................................................... 21 3.2. Good sense to avoid indecency .................................................................................................. 23 3.2.1. Xenophon’s Greek-oriented definition ................................................................................ 23 3.2.2. Cyrus’ political definition .................................................................................................... 24 3.3. Preliminary conclusion ............................................................................................................... 26 Chapter 4: Ischomachus’ sophrosyne .................................................................................................... 27 4.1. Good sense to avoid harming oneself ......................................................................................... 27 4.1.1. Analysis of the passage ....................................................................................................... 27 4.1.2. Interpretation of the Oeconomicus as a whole ..................................................................... 28 4.2. Good sense to avoid harming others .......................................................................................... 29 4.2.1. Analysis of the passage ....................................................................................................... 29 4.2.2. Interpretation of the Oeconomicus as a whole ..................................................................... 30 4.3. Good sense to avoid disorder ..................................................................................................... 32 4.3.1. Analysis of the passage ....................................................................................................... 32 4.3.2. Interpretation of the Oeconomicus as a whole ..................................................................... 34 4.4. Preliminary conclusion ............................................................................................................... 35 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 36 Bibliography .......................................................................................................................................... 38 1 Introduction Ἀπεκρίνατο δέ μοι, ὦ Σώκρατες, πρὸς ταῦτα ἡ γυνή, Τί δ᾿ ἂν ἐγώ σοι, ἔφη, δυναίμην συμπρᾶξαι; τίς δὲ ἡ ἐμὴ δύναμις; ἀλλ᾿ ἐν σοὶ πάντα ἐστίν. ἐμὸν δ᾿ ἔφησεν ἡ μήτηρ ἔργον εἶναι σωφρονεῖν. Ναὶ μὰ Δί᾿, ἔφην ἐγώ, ὦ γύναι, καὶ γὰρ ἐμοὶ ὁ πατήρ. ἀλλὰ σωφρόνων τοί ἐστι καὶ ἀνδρὸς καὶ γυναικὸς οὕτως ποιεῖν, ὅπως τά τε ὄντα ὡς βέλτιστα ἕξει καὶ ἄλλα ὅτι πλεῖστα ἐκ τοῦ καλοῦ τε καὶ δικαίου προσγενήσεται.1 And to this, Socrates, my wife answered me: ‘How could I help you? What is my power? But everything is in your hands. My mother said that it is my job to have self-restraint.’ ‘Yes, by Zeus, wife,’ I said, ‘and so did my father to me. But it is natural to both a self- controlled man and a woman to act in such a way, that their possessions are as good as possible and that very many other things are added to them from the good and the just.’2 It is not at all surprising that we find the term σωφρονεῖν in this passage of Xenophon’s Oeconomicus, for Ischomachus is here telling Socrates about a conversation he once had with his wife about how to manage an estate. Like Carlson says, σωφρονεῖν ‘is typically associated with good decision making, soundness of mind, and a capacity of restraint, particularly with regard to women.’3 The fact that Ischomachus’ wife sees this as her primary task is therefore only natural. What is surprising though, is the answer of Ischomachus. As Pomeroy notes, (Xenophon’s) Ischomachus ‘is the first to connect the σωφροσύνη of both men and women with good administration of the household.’4 So apparently sophrosyne has in his opinion nothing to do with the chastity of his wife. Rather, it is interpreted as a state of mind that benefits an oikonomia, i.e. ‘household’ or in this case ‘real estate’. This is an unexpected interpretation, for it is not found in similar contexts in works written by other authors. Therefore, we are bound to wonder whether Xenophon really means this ‘economic’ interpretation of female sophrosyne. There is a group of commentators who would happily answer this question with a no: the ‘ironic’ interpretators, best represented by Strauss.5 According to their interpretation, Xenophon’s Socrates (and therefore Xenophon) does not actually believe that Ischomachus’ way of life is truly worth imitating. Instead, Socrates would be contrasting Ischomachus’ only seemingly good life to his own actually good life.6 This means that anything Ischomachus says should not be taken seriously, including the interpretation of female sophrosyne presented above. However, not all commentators follow these 1 Xenophon, Oeconomicus, 7.14-15. 2 All translations are my own. 3 Carlson (2015): 133. 4 Pomeroy (1994): 275. 5 Strauss (1970). 6 Cf. Stevens (1994): 211-213. 2 Straussian ideas. Dorion, for example, shows many parallels between the ideas of Socrates and Ischomachus and proves that their ways of life are in fact not in opposition, ‘but instead, a profound complementarity.’7 Therefore, he would not question Ischomachus’ interpretation of sophrosyne here. However, this passage is not usually the focus of either interpretation. The first commentator I have come across who looks into the concept of sophrosyne as an actual argument for the interpretation of the Oeconomicus as a whole, is Carlson: she claims that the fact that Ischomachus interprets female sophrosyne in an unexpected way proves that he has not correctly understood what this concept means. By focusing only on the oikonomia instead of female qualities like chastity, he makes his wife more masculine. This way he forgets her actual importance: bearing children. In other words, Ischomachus’ life is based on a distorted view of sophrosyne and therefore not actually worth living or imitating.8 Though I believe Carlson is on the right track by looking into the way sophrosyne is used and interpreted by Ischomachus, I do not agree with her conclusion. My hypothesis is that an analysis of Ischomachus’ sophrosyne will rather give us an argument for the non-‘ironic’ interpretation: Ischomachus and Socrates live very different ways of life, and it is not surprising if this results in a focus on different aspects of sophrosyne. After all, Rademaker9 has shown that the term sophrosyne has many uses in different contexts. Therefore, I want to use his finds and ideas to come to a new interpretation of Xenophon’s Oeconomicus. By showing that Ischomachus is not so devious in his uses of sophrosyne an ‘ironic’ interpretation will no longer be necessary. In order to prove this hypothesis, I will closely read three different